Known for Acting
Emile Magis, a modest employee, more or less ostracized by the others, would like only one thing, to be happy. Little by little he realizes that life in society is a matter of convention, lies and deception. When he has understood that cynicism rules the world, he decides to play by its untold rules and to take his revenge.
1868. Revolutionary Mathias Sandorf is determined to oust the dictatorship oppressing his country. The people see him as their liberator. Denounced by his banker, Mathias is arrested and sentenced to death. He manages to escape and takes refuge in a fishing village where he prepares a new uprising.
Catherine Hubscher, who washes the shirts of young Napoleon and other soldiers fighting the Revolution, falls in love with Sergeant Lefebvre. Circumstances bring Lefebvre a noble title and even more -- Napoleon decides to make him the local ruler over a large territorial fiefdom. But trouble brews when Madame Sans-Gene, now elevated to the nobility along with her man -- cannot keep her frank observations under control.
Marching down the Italian peninsula to sack ancient Rome, Etruscan warrior Drusco instead offers to hold back his onslaught if the Romans hand over hostages, including Clelia, the sexy leader of a clan of woman warriors. But before long, intrigue and betrayal unravel the fragile peace. Directors Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia and Vittorio Cottafavi helm this vintage sword-and-sandal epic.
This modest, unpretentious French film is a streamlined version of the true story previously cinematized as The Song of Bernadette (1943). Daniele Ajort plays the simple 19th-century French peasant girl who insists that she has experienced a vision of the Virgin Mary. Once this sighting becomes common knowledge, Bernadette's very existence becomes a religious and political hot potato. Thousands of people flock to the grotto at Lourdes where Bernadette claims she has seen the Holy Mother, believing that the waters therein contain recuperative powers. Bernadette dies under a cloud of controversy, but is ultimately elevated to sainthood by the Vatican.
American FBI agent Lemmy Caution arrives in France to track down a dangerous spy.
This drama about the Carmelite order of nuns is set during the French Revolution. A young woman seeks refuge with the Carmelites because she is terrified of dying during the upheaval. The longer she associates with the nuns the more she is transformed by their faith and devotion.
Mario di Donati, a deserter from the Italian army, lives in Paris under a false name with Germaine, his French lover. When the latter learns about his hidden past, she feels hurt by Mario's lack of trust in her and she distances herself from him. In despair, Mario surrenders to the law but, at the time of trial, he runs away to join the woman he loves.
A remake and rewriting by director Bernard Borderie and scripters of a well-made 1932 film, this routine French drama seems a little outdated. The story has changed from a Russian officer who returns home from the war to find his wife has remarried, to a former paratrooper who tries to drive a stolen truck back from Morocco and suffers an accident -- and the same fate as the Russian. As a result of his injuries and the subsequent delay, the ex-military man is unable to get home as scheduled, and the woman he loves decides that he has left her. Once she "realizes" that supposed truth, she decides to marry her boss. As in the earlier film, one of the protagonists ends up in the French Foreign Legion and all three head toward a fateful meeting in a North African desert.
Henri La Tour, a strolling player, is also a daring adventurer. So, when, after accomplishing a brilliant feat, he is awarded a title by King Louis XV, the Duke of Saint-Sever takes offense at it and challenges Henri to a duel. However, while they fight, a group of Austrian soldiers appear suddenly and the two rivals instantly unite to repel their enemies. Unfortunately, Saint-Sever is mortally wounded and, feeling he is about to die, he entreats his new friend to offer protection to Toinon, his natural daughter, whose life is being threatened...
The charming Lulu, a cabaret singer and dancer, has no shortage of admirers. When she decides to get married, she sets her heart on Robert, a young industrialist, but he is already married. Disappointed, she sets out in search of the ideal man.